NBA's new union leader Michele Roberts is fierce — and a trailblazer

Renowned trial attorney Michele A. Roberts — named to be the NBA's union leader first female leader last month — is the first female to be the head of a major North American professional sports union.

How’s this for an intro?

“My past is littered with the bones of men who were foolish enough to think I was someone they could sleep on,” said Michele A. Roberts, as she introduced herself to several hundred NBA players last month, the New York Times reported.

Hours later, Roberts was named the first female leader of a major North American professional sports union.

A renowned Washington, D.C., trial attorney, Roberts was selected from a pool of candidates that was 300 deep last fall. She assumes the position last held by Billy Hunter.

Hunter, a longtime union director, was ousted in February 2013 when an audit found he was mismanaging and abusing funds, the New York Times reported.

Roberts says she plans to change the way the union operates.

“It was clearly run by Hunter without much input from other people,” she told the New York Times. “It’s completely inconsistent with the way any entity, let alone any union, should be run.”

Roberts will speak on the players’ behalf at the next labor negotiation, expected to be in 2017, which will tackle minimum age requirements and maximum salary levels.